"So, do you all have any ideas as to how we could market the comic book? The plan is to release it three weeks before the movie premiere."
Sitting in the marketing meeting for [Hex - Part 1], Aiden felt a bit bored. Today was one of the days where he felt lazy but work was work.
You can't really escape it.
A lot of it was also because he was coming back after a week-long vacation that had become one of the most memorable memories of his life.
'I understand why office workers hate Mondays. It's tough to come back to work after vacation.'
Aiden thought in his mind and Wade shook him a bit, seeing that Aiden was not focusing.
"Focus a bit." He whispered.
"I will try."
Aiden frowned and rubbed his eyes a bit before looking at the marketing team head who looked a bit frustrated. Their marketing campaign until now had only revolved around character posters, billboards and some online fan interaction.
They have also released 1 minute small trailers, highlighting a bit of the story and the best parts about the movie.
That was fine on social media but they needed a way to get more neutrals in the theatres.
"The comic book is one of the main points of our marketing campaign and we need to promote it in a way that it reaches a large group of people."
The idea of an original comic book emerged then.
With the expanded world of <Hex>, they could tell a lot of stories and more people read comics than novels. So, their idea could work.
Samuel Davidson was writing the comic book and it was already completed. A three chapter comic book that has a completely original story.
Aiden had already read through it and it was pretty nice. At least it did what it was intended to do which was to show the world of [Hex].
"Can't we just promote it through those comic book apps? There are a few popular ones and then, I'm very sure it would sell well in stores."
"We have plans but our estimates say that it won't work as well as we think with that. The whole point is to reach more and more people."
Hearing that, Aiden thought that getting it on those comic book apps would be a bit dumb as he hardly knew of any that don't take money to read comics.
The sales will be good as <Hex> fans would buy it but it won't reach the audience it was intended to reach.
'Why not just make it free?'
Aiden thought in his mind.
He doubted Titan studios cared about money from the comic book sales or even Samuel focused on it. If the movie is successful, he would be very happy and a part of the profit would be donated to charities as the rights were sold with that in the contract.
The author of the books was a very charitable person.
So, that clause was added in the contract.
"How about we just make it free?"
He suddenly said, thinking up to that. Everyone in the room looked at him weirdly and the marketing head tilted her head.
"What do you mean?"
"You want to reach a lot of people right?"
"Yes."
"Those who aren't fans of the books or the younger audience. After all, <Hex> is pretty old."
"Yes."
"Then, make it free."
Aiden leaned against his seat, already bored of the meeting. There was nothing new and it was all the stuff that he had heard before.
Interviews, billboards, photoshoots, fan interaction on social media. Only the comic book part was something that needed to be talked about.
Even in it, these people were not using common sense.
"What do you mean by making it free? Upload it on the internet?"
"Yeah. and try to post them on every pirate site that has comics. Believe it or not, most comic book readers read them. Especially those from outside of America. Pirating is huge in lots of parts of the world and for a reason."
Aiden explained, then seeing that everyone was focusing on him, he continued.
"I don't see why we are trying to see profit in the comic book sales when it's a marketing gimmick. We could easily plan some events and give out the hard copies for the comic books, making it some sort of a premium thing and then, it would be extremely easy to just make the digital copies free for everyone to check out. Anyway, it's just my idea. I have a few interviews to attend, so I will leave now."
Saying that, Aiden walked away from the meeting. There was nothing else to do in it and even Wade understood that.
After he left the room, the marketing team head looked at the people in the room and muttered.
"Why did no one else think of that? Why are you all getting paid?"
No one spoke hearing that but they really wanted to say one thing.
'Not like you got that idea either! You just want to play safe then complain about a lack of innovation!'
***
Like Aiden said in the meeting, it was way better to make the comics free so that they could reach as many audiences as possible. Moreover, posting them on pirated sites was another good idea and it was maybe the first time anyone was doing it.
A lot of readers read regularly there and may not look for the <Hex> comic book themselves, so it was the best way to get them to read.
Maybe, they would like it and when someone asks them to come to the movie with them, they will have a better idea of what they were getting into and would agree.
Apart from that, Aiden's time was mostly spent giving interviews. Some with Olio and his other co-stars and some on his own. Today, he was doing a solo interview with a reporter that gave him a lot of bad vibes.
Just the stuff he had heard from Tom was enough for him to be a bit more careful.
'Someone who will try to focus on the negative rumours around you and even if you say anything simple, he's going to cut out things in his article and make a controversial headline.'
Aiden thought in his mind, looking at the smiling fan in front of him. He looked like someone who was always smiling and being happy. Even his tone was like that but all of it was just a facade to make celebrities let their guard down.
Tom had told him that once he had interviewed a female singer and she had said something like, "I think my music appeals to women more than men."
The reporter had made it "My music is not for man" in the article and it had given the singer a lot of unnecessary hate. Her agency even complained about it but nothing was done as these types of headlines get more clicks.
Not like people would bother to read a whole article anyway.
"So, there are a lot of rumours regarding the project and how some actors were not happy that it became a two part release. Wasn't that because of you taking that decision?"
The question was here.
Aiden got alert as he knew that whatever answer he gave, the article would come up with a controversial headline.
He took his time and thought deeply about each word before opening his mouth.
"I don't know which rumours you heard but most actors were happy for the two part release as their roles increased because of it and they would be getting paid more. Moreover, actors who read the whole script agreed that a two part release was necessary and it wasn't my decision but Olio's. He's the director, so he calls the shots."
He said and hoped that the reporter wouldn't find something odd in it.
The reporter just wrote something down in his notebook and moved on with the interview.
Aiden took a sigh of relief.
The interview went ahead and he just hoped that all the marketing campaigns for [Hex - Part 1] would go smoothly.
He could handle these reporters but didn't want any other problems.
Sadly for him, a problem was already brewing for a long time and was going to come out now.
***
In an office, a man was blowing out his tea. After it got a bit cold, he took a sip out of it and looked at the person in front of him.
"You are sure of it, right? You need to keep up with it no matter what. Otherwise, you're gonna suffer."
"I'm ready for it. It's going to help out my career, right?"
The person sitting in front of him asked. She had a very deep but resolute voice.
"I told you it will."
"Okay, then. I'm ready."
"Good."
The man smiled and asked his assistant to call up the reporters. It was time to get some spice in Hollywood.
'I will destroy you, Aiden.'
He thought in his mind.
The man was Franco Li, the star agent who Aiden had rejected.
